Obama wants to extend the payroll tax cut, and fund it with a surtax on millionaires. Republicans believe, correctly, that this is not a pro-growth economic policy. But, they are willing to go along with the extension if Obama will agree to move forward on the Keystone XL pipeline, and they propose to fund the tax cut in other ways. That sounds like compromise to me. But Obama has threatened a veto, and Harry Reid says he won't even allow such a proposal to come to a vote in the Senate. This is the same Harry Reid who thinks the concept that millionaires create jobs is as mythical as the unicorn, but I digress.
In other words, Republicans are saying let's compromise. Obama gets his payroll tax cut, and in return they ask for a project that will create jobs and allow the country to lessen its dependence on oil from the Mideast. Sounds like a pretty reasonable compromise to me.
It seems to me that Obama is now in the unenviable position of having to explain to the middle class, who he claims to champion, that he will not extend their payroll tax cut if it means creating more jobs and improving the nation's energy situation. Then again, he recently said that the payroll tax cut would create more jobs than the Keystone XL pipeline. Which means that, like Harry Reid, he is either astonishingly ignorant or couldn't care less whether his utterances have any connection to reality. He will have to rely heavily on his spin doctors and hope that the public is not paying attention.
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